David Blunt is Head of Conduct Specialists in Supervision at the FCA. David is the accountable executive for the FCA’s priority of governance and culture at firms, including the extension of the senior managers and certification regime to all authorised firms. David is also responsible for specialist advice across a range of areas including financial promotions, consumer contracts, remuneration and the use of skilled persons under s166 FMSA. David has been at the FCA/FSA since 2000 where his roles have included heading the investment banks department in Supervision Division and a variety of roles in the Markets and Enforcement divisions. Prior to joining the FSA, David worked at the London Stock Exchange in its Listing Division. David trained as a solicitor and worked at Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) from 1992-1998 where he specialised in commercial litigation involving banks and other financial services firms

Saker is CEO of the international business of Federated Hermes, appointed November 2011, having joined in June 2009 as CIO. He is also a member of the Federated Hermes Executive team. Prior to this, Saker was Global Head of Equities at Fortis Investments, having previously been CIO Global Equities since 2005. Before this, he was CIO of Global Equities and Head of Marketing for SGAM UK. This followed SGAM’s acquisition of Trust Company of the West, where Saker was a Managing Director running global and international strategies, as well the London office. He started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1987.
Saker is founder of the 300 Club and was an inaugural member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council from 2013 until 2019. He is a member of the IIRC Council, the FCA-PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum, the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative Steering Committee, the Banking Standards Board, the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, and the advisory Board of the National Youth Orchestra.

In 2018, Saker was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Europe Awards. He has a BA and PhD in Medieval History from King's College, University of London.

Saker was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2019 New Year's Honours list for services to Responsible Business and Finance.

Sophie is currently responsible for UK Reward at Deutsche Bank, focusing specifically on regulatory requirements and regional reward matters. Prior to this, Sophie worked in Group Reward supporting Deutsche Bank’s Remuneration Committee. Sophie also has extensive experience of deferred compensation/share plans whilst working at ING followed by Barclays. Sophie has over 15 years’ reward experience at major financial institutions. 

Alex leads Linklaters’ Incentives practice. She advises leading corporations and financial institutions including over 2/3 of the top 20 global banks, 1/2 the top 20 global asset managers and over 1/3 of the FTSE 30, including their boards, on corporate governance and accountability and global remuneration rules, often in the context of significant corporate transactions, crisis management or regulatory investigations.

Alex also has extensive experience working with lawmakers and regulators on the development of new legislation and regulation. She is in regular contact with the Bank of England, PRA and FCA and industry bodies including AFME, ICI Global and the Investment Association.

Alex was recognised in the Financial News “40 under 40 legal stars” in 2014 as “making a name for herself as a lead advisor to the financial services sector”. Alex chairs Linklaters’ London Social Impact Committee and is on the Board of Trustees of St Mungo’s, the UK homelessness charity and chair of its People and Governance Committee. She is also a member of Business in the Community’s London Leadership Board. Business in the Community is the oldest and largest business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business.

Will is a senior HR reward professional with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. His career started in tax consultancy at Arthur Andersen and KPMG after which he moved in-house to focus on remuneration at a number of international banks including Goldman Sachs, UBS and HSBC. Will is currently the Head of Executive Compensation and Reward Governance at Standard Chartered.

James has over 20 years of professional experience. He started his career at PwC, gaining international consulting experience in the UK, US and Singapore, leading the delivery of HR consultancy to financial services clients and advising on cross-border Reward arrangements. He joined Barclays in 2011 to provide Reward advice to senior executives in the Investment Bank and then moved to the Barclays Group Centre to lead the Group Executive Reward and Deferred Compensation and Share Plans teams.  James is currently the Head of Reward for Barclays Bank PLC which includes the Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank as well as the Cards and Payments and the Private Bank business. James is also the head of Reward for Barclays Bank Ireland PLC which serves Barclays’ European clients via its European branch network.

John is a Partner in Deloitte’s Financial Services Reward practice and leads their Banking reward proposition in the UK and across North West Europe.   John has 20 years of reward consulting experience, and has a broad portfolio of Financial Services clients, including Banking, Insurance and Asset Management firms.
He has wide experience in advising a range of Financial Services companies in the structuring and implementation of remuneration strategies and incentive arrangements.  Projects have included advice on reward strategy, incentive design, performance metrics, reward regulatory considerations, corporate governance and investor consultation, as well as a number of internal audits on remuneration. 
He is an expert on financial services regulation of reward, and advises companies regularly on performance adjustment and the embedding of risk and culture into the reward framework. 

Liz leads the reward team at Pictet Asset Management where she joined in early 2019. She has over 15 years of reward experience in the asset management sector. Areas of expertise include incentive management and design, the compensation review process, governance, remuneration committee work, regulation, reward advisory and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining Pictet Asset Management, Liz was the Head of Reward for M&G Investments, having held more junior roles from joining the firm’s reward function in 2005. Liz also has prior experience in generalist HR and as an Executive Business Manager. Liz has a BSC in Management Sciences from the University of Southampton.

Lucy heads the reward team for the Investment Bank at UBS, as well as UK/EMEA compensation and benefits and the regulatory reward team. Lucy has been at UBS for 6 years focussing on regulatory and regional reward matters before taking responsibility for the Investment Bank reward function in 2020. Prior to joining UBS, Lucy spent 5.5 years at Societe Generale in London, Singapore and Paris in UK, EMEA and APAC regional and CIB global compensation roles. Lucy is also a member of the People Committee of the Association of Foreign Banks.

Named by Cranfield’s FTSE Board Report as one of the 100 Senior Women to Watch and with a strong and diverse Non-Executive Director portfolio, Valerie is a former Managing Director, Executive Committee Member and Group Head of People (banking, insurance, energy and retail).

Since 2009, a strong non- executive portfolio career in both the private and public sector. In the private sector, two strands - Non Executive Director, Chair of Nominations and Remuneration Committees within the insurance (Tokio Marine Kiln) and aviation industries (ACL International and ACL UK) and Senior Board Advisor to multinational corporations focusing on strategy, governance, regulation and culture, board and executive mentoring.

In the public sector, Board member and Chair of Remuneration Committee for BPDTS Ltd. (at the DWP) and formerly Independent Senior Advisor to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) at the Bank of England. Born in Dublin, and with dual (British and Irish) nationality, Valerie is a graduate of University College Dublin and a Founder member and Freeman of the Guild of HR Professionals in the City of London.

Noemie currently leads the EMEA Remuneration Governance team at Morgan Stanley. Noemie started her HR career at Societe Generale (in Paris and then London), following which she held reward roles at Deloitte and Barclays. Noemie joined Morgan Stanley in 2018 to provide advice on EU regulatory compensation matters, and in 2019 her remit broadened to include the responsibility for the EMEA Remuneration Governance team. Noemie holds a BA in French-German Business Administration from ISFATES, and a Masters degree in HR Management and CSR from Paris Sorbonne University.

Phil joined Insight Investment in June 2012. As Head of Reward, he is responsible for delivering a competitive global reward proposition and providing insights into the workforce through effective people MI. Prior to joining Insight, Phil spent over 10 years in a variety of senior Compensation, Accounting and Tax roles within Financial Services including BGC Partners, Lansdowne Partners and Smith & Williamson. Phil is an ACA Chartered Accountant and also holds a First Class BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Brunel University.

Matthew has broad experience in advising clients on all aspects of their global incentive arrangements with a particular focus on large multinational companies and the financial services sector. Matthew advises a number of the global banks, insurers and asset managers in relation to their compliance with UK, EU and global remuneration regulations.
Matthew regularly presents at industry events in Europe, Asia and the US, and has also recently been recognised again as a “Rising Star” in The Legal 500 (UK) for 2021. Matthew also serves as a trustee director for Tapestry’s employee ownership trust which owns 100% of Tapestry on behalf of the firm’s employees.

Michael is responsible for all aspects of variable and regulatory remuneration at NatWest Group from bonus pool and long term incentive design and delivery through to external statutory and regulatory disclosures. He has extensive experience of designing, implementing and managing reward policies, processes and programmes on a global basis. Michael’s team are also responsible for Reward Reporting and Analytics, Remuneration Committee management and managing the senior executive performance goals process for the Group.
A qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years financial services experience, he spent his early career first at PwC and then at Barclays in the Wealth Management business. Since joining NatWest Group in 2010, Michael has held a variety of roles in the Reward and Employment teams prior to his current position.

Duncan is a partner at PwC's Financial Services Reward and Employment practice. He is a senior reward and HR advisor to a large number of financial services organisations and their remuneration committees. Duncan has experience across financial services, with a particular focus on investment management, advising a diverse range of public and private businesses both in the UK and globally on management incentive and remuneration regulatory issues.

Phillippa is a partner within PwC’s People & Organisation business and leads the Reward & Employment team nationally.

Her focus is executive compensation and she is the reward adviser to large companies and their remuneration committees (both UK and overseas), including over a dozen FTSE-350 companies.

She works with companies and their remuneration committees to design, implement and communicate approaches that are effective in meeting their aims, and to help them cascade reward so as to link with strategy through the organisation.

Phillippa has experience across sectors but a particular specialism in Financial Services (banking and capital markets), Support Services, Retail and Consumer businesses and Pharmaceuticals. She is also a qualified accountant.

In 2015 Phillippa was recognised in Accountancy Age’s 35 under 35. She had a three year tenure as Chair of the CBI's Young Business Leaders Committee from 2016 to 2019.

Andrew is a partner in the Clifford Chance Incentives team. The Incentives team is a market leading adviser on remuneration and incentives and is ranked ‘Tier 1’ in legal directories both in the UK and globally. Andrew specialises in all legal, regulatory, tax and governance aspects of remuneration, share plans and incentives. Before joining the firm,  Andrew was most recently Head of Incentives Law at Barclays, with responsibility for managing incentives legal risk on a global basis. As a result of Andrew’s extensive in-house and private practice experience, he has particular expertise in drafting and advising on the design, implementation and operation of remuneration arrangements for financial services institutions and in helping clients navigate through a heavily regulated landscape in order to balance legal risk and the practical challenges of implementing and operating global incentive plans. Andrew has specialised in remuneration and incentives for 15 years and is member of the ifs ProShare Global Issues Focus Group which brings together companies and advisers to consider key issues affecting share plans globally. According to Legal 500 (2021), clients say that Andrew brings to the table "both his unique experience of financial remuneration regulation gained at Barclays and his phenomenal work ethic."

Darren is an accountant with over 35 years experience in financial services, primarily retail banking.

He is currently the Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Virgin Money UK plc which he joined in 2018. He is additionally the Senior Independent Director at both Network international PLC and Equiniti PLC where he additionally chairs the respective Audit Committees. He has most recently taken on a role as the Chairman of Silicon Valley Bank UK.

Prior to his non executive career Darren was one of the founders of the internet bank Egg and subsequently worked at Lloyds Bank plc in a number of senior finance and strategy roles. Immediately prior to starting his non executive career Darren was the Chief Financial Officer of TSB bank where he took the lead role in the separation of the TSB business form Lloyds Bank plc and its subsequent IPO.

Darren is season ticket holder of Bath Rugby but he would rather not talk about their performance this year.

Bradley is a Counsel in Linklaters’ market-leading Employment & Incentives team. Bradley advises a wide range of leading listed institutions, banks and asset managers on all remuneration and incentives matters, from corporate governance to plan design, and from the impact of corporate transactions to the operation of remuneration arrangements globally.

Bradley specialises in advising on the regulatory remuneration rules and remuneration governance in the financial services sector, having advised on remuneration regulation since the advent of the regulatory regimes. Bradley’s clients in the financial services sector include leading global investment banks, listed UK banks, global asset management firms and fintech institutions. Bradley is actively involved with a range of financial services industry bodies, and is currently assisting clients and industry associations on the implications of the CRD V and IFD regimes.

Bradley is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Tax Committee, recognised as a “Next Generation Lawyer” by Legal 500 and clients report that Bradley “always demonstrates his great knowledge, approach and support" and "provides excellent advice and offers options and solutions in any situation”. Bradley is a regular speaker on remuneration matters, in particular in the financial services sector.

Simon Shipgood is responsible for sourcing and developing client relationships for EWM Global’s UK and European markets. In this role, he has worked with some of the world’s largest financial institutions including global banks, asset managers, and private capital firms, helping them to implement and manage their executive remuneration and carried interest plans. Previously, he spent 3 years at EWM Global as Account Manager responsible for the entire client life cycle including on boarding, ongoing client management and ensuring all deliverables were met in a timely and accurate manner, according to specifications.
Simon has always been involved in business development and prior to EWM Global, he spent 10 years in financial services recruitment with Morgan McKinley. He and his team sourced positions across asset management and investment banking, predominantly for accounting, operations and compliance roles. He holds a BA in European Business Studies from Brunel University.

Andrew Trapnell is a Senior HR Professional specializing in Reward, Governance and HR Management.  He is an Associate of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and a Member of the International Employee Benefits Association (IEBA). He is also a member of the CIPD Policy Forum.
 
During a 36 year career in Human Resources, Andrew acquired expertise across a broad range of issues affecting HR and across a range of jurisdictions. He retired from Morgan Stanley after more than 25 years, most recently as a Managing Director and Deputy Head of HR for EMEA, where he also spent eight years in Asia in two separate assignments to Tokyo and Hong Kong ending as Head of HR for Morgan Stanley’s Asia region. 

Andrew is currently a senior advisor to the HR team at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). He is also a Pension Plan Trustee, and undertakes a number of charitable Trustee and management activities.

Lucinda is Director, Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at BNY Mellon. Lucinda was appointed to this role in June 2018 having joined BNY Mellon in 2011 and worked in Global Client Management and the EMEA CAO team.

Passionate about the talent pipeline, Lucinda Co-Chaired BNY Mellon’s Women’s Initiative Network in EMEA from 2015-2018. Recognising the benefits of mentoring, Lucinda led BNY Mellon’s participation in the UK 30% Club Cross Company Mentoring Programme since its inception in 2013 and collaborated with BNY Mellon’s LGBT+ network, to launch an EMEA Reverse Mentoring Programme in 2017. As a “Returner”, Lucinda is focused on the importance of encouraging those who have taken an extended period of absence back into the workplace and participated in the launch of BNY Mellon’s direct hire programme targeting Returner talent. Lucinda was recognised as one of the FT’s Champions of Women in Business 2018, and a Top 10 Future Leader Role Model.

Lucinda is a member of BNY Mellon’s EMEA Operating Council, a member of the Financial Services Skills Commission Advisory Group and sits on HM Treasury’s Women In Finance Charter Board.

Prior to Financial Services, Lucinda worked in the art world specialising in 19th and 20th century paintings. Her interests are art, behavioural economics, food, travel and riding her motorcycle.